The first research question addressed
whether there are cognitive attributes that dif
ferentiate inadequate and adequate responders
to a Tier 2 intervention. Our results suggest
that adequate and inadequate responders can
be differentiated across cognitive variables be
cause contrasts with the adequate responder
groups were largely significant. Group separa
tion is apparent in Figure 1, where the ade
quate responder group presents a flatter, gen
erally higher profile than the inadequate re
sponder groups, who show uneven
performance with specific deficits related to
documented reading deficits. This finding pro
vides evidence for the validity of inadequate
and adequate responder status as a classifica
tion attribute because resulting groups can be
differentiated on variables not used for group
formation (Morris & Fletcher, 1998).
The second question addressed whether
inadequate responder groups could be differ
entiated across cognitive attributes based on
the assessed reading domains. The results of
our study suggest that in middle school, it is
possible to identify at least three groups of
inadequate responders in addition to an ade
quate responder group. Each group showed
unique cognitive skill profiles, consistent with
previous research investigating the cognitive
profiles of good and poor readers defined ac
cording to decoding, fluency, and comprehen
sion criteria.